Israel Offers Support to Spain Following ISIS-Claimed Van Ramming Attack in Barcelona

Israel offered support to Spain following a terror attack, which ISIS took credit for, that claimed at least twelve lives and injured 80 more, on Thursday.

A van rammed into a crowd in a section of Barcelona's most famous street that had been made into a pedestrian mall, The New York Timesreported.

Shortly afterwards ISIS took credit for the attack claiming that its "soldiers" had carried it out. Barcelona is the latest European city to be struck by such an attack. Since last year, cities such as Nice, Berlin, and London have suffered similar attacks.

Two suspects were arrested following the attack. One was arrested near the scene of the attack and a second about 50 miles away. A third suspect died after trying to ram police near the scene of the attack. It is unclear if the police killed him or if he took his own life.

During a recent wave of terror, Palestinians frequently used car rammings as a means of attacking Israelis.

In solidarity with the victims, the lights in Tel Aviv City Hall lit up with the colors of the Spanish flag.

Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Hotovely said, "I condemn this deplorable act of terror and senseless death and stand with Spain with prayers for the fast recovery of the victims."

Netanyahu Expresses Support for Kurdish Independence Amid Concerns of Growing Iranian Power

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced his support for an independent Kurdish state in the Kurdish areas of Iraq during a meeting with a delegation of 33 Republican congressmen last week.

According to sources who took part in the discussion, the Prime Minister expressed his “positive attitude” toward a Kurdish state in northern Iraq and described the Kurds as “brave, pro-Western people who share our values,” The Jerusalem Postreported

Netanyahu made his comments amid increasing concerns in Jerusalem that Iran is consolidating power in the region, especially in Syria, but also in Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere.

Netanyahu has not addressed the issue of Kurdish independence since 2014 because of the thorny nature of the debate, with many states following a policy of supporting a unified Iraq. During a speech in Tel Aviv three years ago, the Prime Minister said that "We should ... support the Kurdish aspiration for independence," and called the Kurds "a nation of fighters [who] have proved political commitment and are worthy of independence.”

Israel and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) do not have an official relationship but have enjoyed friendly ties for years. In 2015, the KRG appointed its first Jewish Representative, Sherzad Omar Mamsani, tasked with reviving Jewish life in northern Iraq and building bridges between Jews and Kurds. Under his leadership, the KRG officially commemorated the Holocaust for the first time.

When presenting to Parliament the candidates for cabinet positions for his new government, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani touted his pick for justice minister as a "moderate" even though he was designated as a human rights abuser by the European Union and participated in thousands of summary executions in the 1980s.

Rouhani, according Iran's Mehr News agency, said that Seyyed Alireza Avaee was a "moderate during his post as Chief Justice of Tehran, calling on him to pursue human rights, citizenship rights, fighting corruption, and the legal and judicial issues of Iranians living abroad during his term as Minister of Justice."

However, Avaee was sanctioned by the EU in 2011 for human rights violations including "arbitrary arrests, denials of prisoners’ rights and increase of executions" for the time he served as President of Tehran Judiciary.

Like the justice minister during Rouhani's first term, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Avaee has been implicated in his role in the thousands of summary executions carried out on the order of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Pour-Mohammadi earned the nickname “minister of murder” for having overseen the summary executions of tens of thousands of dissidents in the late 1980s.

As the chief prosecutor at the Dezful prison during the mass executions, Avaee was a member of the death board that sentenced prisoners to death. Witnesses described him as one the most cruel executioners.

Medical history was made at Emek Medical Center in Afula this week when semi-liquid live human bone tissue grown in a lab from a 40-year-old patient’s own fat cells was transplanted into the patient’s arm by injection.

The patient had suffered significant bone loss in his arm as the result of a car accident and previously underwent several unsuccessful surgeries.

The procedure was part of an early-stage clinical trial of a revolutionary tissue-engineering technology developed by Bonus BioGroup of Haifa. A hospital spokeswoman told ISRAEL21c that it is too early to report results in this specific case.

In December 2016, Bonus BioGroup announced successful results of an early-stage clinical trial on 11 patients in which bone tissue grown from a small sample of each patient’s own fat cells was injected into their jaws to repair bone loss. Over a few months it hardened and merged with the existing bone to complete the jaw, according to the company.

Emek Medical Center’s head of orthopedic surgery, Dr. Nimrod Rozen, is among three doctors on Bonus BioGroup’s scientific advisory board.

“The technology we developed allows us to grow a bone that is based on a patient’s biological tissue, so there is no danger that the patient’s body will reject the implant,” said Rozen, who also cofounded the Institute for Bone Repair at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

Last April, the company raised $9 million in a private offering investment.